Joining Up for Climate Finance Skills – Webinar Fosters Dialogue Among Training Institutions on Upscaling Capacity Building

A flipchart with the results of a working group on climate finance 18 May 2017, Geneva, Switzerland – Within the framework of the regional UNDP-initiative Strengthening the Governance of Climate Change Finance to Benefit the Poor and Vulnerable in Asia and the Pacific, UNITAR held a webinar with training institutions active in climate finance training. The event brought together 10 representatives from Africa, Asia and Europe to share experience on opportunities and challenges in delivering capacity building in this innovative field of work. The complexity of the current landscape of climate finance poses serious challenges to both policymakers and potential investors. Many countries are already working on improving the management of climate finance and aligning national and international resources. In order to do so, many expressed interest in equipping public sector officials with a better understanding of how to access and manage climate finance effectively.

The webinar gave representatives an opportunity to present their work and preliminary lessons learned, and pose questions to colleagues working in similar contexts in different regions. During the moderated discussion, participants pondered the question of how to upscale training delivery through intensified collaboration at varying levels – national, regional and possibly global – in an effort to respond to growing skills demands from governments. The group concluded that, looking ahead, greater emphasis is needed on enabling subnational authorities as well to allocate local revenues smartly in pursuit of decentralized solutions. Moreover, knowledge about climate-responsive budgeting needs to reach beyond technical staff in planning departments to include more agents at the management level. Regional collaboration can help in identifying and showcasing good practices among numerous countries.

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